


here, looking at you

by charleybradburies



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Community: 1_million_words, Cultural References, Developing Relationship, F/F, Female Friendship, Female-Centric, Femslash, Femslash February, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Girls Kissing, Girls' Night Out, Internalized Homophobia, Male-Female Friendship, Movie Night, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Canon Compliant, POV Female Character, Sexual Tension, Unexpected Visitors, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 05:29:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3369578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As if it were the last time.</p><p>[Or, Daniel takes a rain check, and Angie takes a chance.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	here, looking at you

The knock on her door is one that makes it sound like the building might be going up in flames, and thus Peggy knows that it’s Angie at her door, here to alert her to - no, that couldn’t be right. It was nearly twenty minutes before he’d agreed to pick her up.

He wouldn’t be quite _that_ early, would he?

She finishes slipping in her earrings and opens the door. Angie looks distressed, and it makes Peggy no less nervous.

“Hey, English.”

“Is he really here already?”

“No.”

“No? Then why are you up here? You said-"

“Your cousin’s downstairs, says there’s "family business" you two need to talk about."

Peggy grits her teeth.

“I tried to tell him to come back another time, but he practically begged me to convince you to talk to him. Almost started crying, even.”

“Don’t fall for it,” Peggy says curtly. She pulls on her coat then struts over to her bed and grabs her purse, slinging it over her wrist and exiting her room. She and Angie traipse down the stairs together, and Howard turns to look at them as they come down, his face full of a cocktail of fear and gratitude. 

She goes straight to him, and pinches his ear as hard as she can, and drags him out to the sidewalk.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Peg!” he yelps, bringing a hand to cover his ear once she finally lets go of him. She doesn’t leave him relief for long. She almost smiles at the release she feels from punching him in the face.

Again.

“Just who the hell do you think you are?” Peggy shouts once he’s able to stand straight and look at her.

“Peg-” Howard continues to say pleadingly, but he doesn’t seem to intend to say much of anything substantive, and she honestly doesn’t intend to let him.

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s rich! That makes it all better, doesn’t it? You have a compulsive need to tear my life to shreds, but it’s all fine and dandy because you’re bloody sorry!”

“I was trying to do what was right.”

“Well, you failed!”

“I know, Peg. I know.”

“So to tell me, you disrupt my life, and now you ruin my Valentine’s Day!”

“I didn’t think that you would - you have a date,” Howard realizes dimly, and looking him straight in the eye she watches the guilt seep into his expression.

A deep, uncertain cough from behind her takes Howard’s attention from her, but she bows her head sadly. She knows that cough.

“I’m not here for anything lewd, I’m her cousin,” Howard starts explaining weakly, but she cuts him off.

“Don’t bother.”

“Peg-”

“No, really, don’t bother,” Daniel agrees tersely. “I know who you are.”

Howard glances between them. Daniel gently grabs her wrist, and she turns to him.

“I’m sorry, Peg.”

She nods.

“Some other time, then, I suppose.”

“Howard Stark, you’re under arrest.”

***

Mrs Fry’s expression creases into concern when Peggy pushes unceremoniously through the door, and before she’d even noticed Angie was still there, the girl’s arms are thrust around her comfortingly.

“What on earth happened? What did your cousin say?”

“It’s complicated, Angie,” Peggy pulls back tensely.

“Well, it can’t be too terribly complicated,” Mrs Fry comments. “Hasn't your gentleman shown?”

“He’s been called away. Professional circumstances.”

“Caller late, Peg? Thought you’d be out already,” comes Dottie’s voice from the stairwell, and Peggy and Angie turn to see her, arm in arm with Carol, coming down the stairs.

“He’s been called away by professional circumstances,” Angie replies in a mocking tone that brings the slightest smile to Peggy’s lips.

“Now, now, Miss Martinelli,” Mrs Fry reprimands. “I’m sure that whatever has called him away must be very important, if he’s forfeiting an evening with Miss Carter for need of doing it.”

Dottie and Carol walk over to the other pair, and Carol slings her arm around Peggy’s shoulder.

“Well, now at least we get time to hear about this guy, see if he’s somebody you really oughta be going with.”

“He's dressed nice - you sure these circumstances don’t have anything to do with a wife?” adds Dottie.

“He’s not married,” Peggy says firmly.

“Hmm, yeah. He does look too nice for that,” Angie muses.

“Too nice…to be married?”

“Too nice to be married and looking for a girl on the side, I mean. That other fellow, though, the English one, I don’t know about him,” Angie continues.

“He _is_ married.”

“Peggy!” exclaims Dottie.

“But he’s not a suitor, he’s a friend. He works for Howard.”

“Your cousin Howard?” asks Carol.

“Yes.”

“He was just here, wasn't he? Where’s he gone?”

“Prison, probably,” Peggy grumbles.

“What?” her companions yelp.

“It’s a long, unfortunate story.”

"Let me guess: he's the professional circumstance," Dottie says in a sad, inquisitive voice, and Peggy shoots her a knowing look.

“So the English guy is married?” Angie presses a moment later.

“Girls, could you take this somewhere other than the lobby, please?” moans Miriam.

“Yes, of course,” they say in unison with a hint of childish guilt, and Dottie and Carol grab Angie and Peggy by their respective elbows and pull them to the steps out front.

“Edwin is married, yes. His wife, Anna, makes a lovely casserole.”

“Does she make rhubarb pie?”

“You’re really stuck on rhubarb pie, aren’t you?” Peggy smiles.

“It’s the best pie there ever was! Of course I’m stuck on it.”

Peggy chuckles, leaning into Angie’s shoulder as the girl slings her arm around Peggy’s neck. She shivers slightly from the winter chill.

“So, Peggy, if you’re not going out with your guy, you should come out with us girls!” Carol suggests. Peggy’s lips purse at the idea that Daniel is ‘her guy’ but doesn’t bother challenging the comment.

“You know, I’d love to, but I’ve got plenty of book-"

“Nuh-uh," Angie declares. "You are too pretty to be sittin’ inside moping on a Valentine’s Day. It'd be morally reprehensible of us to leave you here.”

“Angie-"

“No, she’s right. You should come out to the movies with us,” says Dottie encouragingly. “They’re showing _Casablanca._ ”

Peggy starts to open her mouth again, ready to protest, but she feels Angie’s arm tighten around hers and looks over, and the moment she sees the girl’s pleading expression she knows she’s done for.

“Oh, all right!” she accedes, and the other three cheer. She rolls her eyes at them, but her smile remains on her face, and they all link arms and head down the street together.

***

The door creaks as she opens it, and before she even turns around to inquire into the chance of company, Angie’s followed her inside.

“Well, English? That wasn’t too bad, was it?”

Peggy chuckles, slipping out of her coat and hanging it up.

“Not at all.”

Angie pulls off her own coat, hanging it over one of the bedposts as she easily takes a seat on Peggy’s bed.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine,” Peggy quotes, deepening her voice for dramatic flair. She grabs a bottle of wine and a bowl of chocolates, and moves the bench from her vanity to the bedside, setting them and two small glasses on top of it before she gingerly sits down next to Angie.

Angie mimics her tone, playfully forming a gun with her fingers and pointing towards Peggy.

“And remember, this gun is pointed right at your heart.”

“That is my least vulnerable spot,” Peggy says with an air of feigned arrogance, and they both giggle. They quiet after a moment, a light sense of tension still between them.

It had been odd, sitting next to each other in a theatre, leaning into each other’s shoulders and keeping their hands clasped for nearly the whole time. Peggy recognized the sort of feeling she’d had when she whispered into her ear - she’d felt that before. Not many times, but enough to differentiate that sentiment - and its accompanying nervousness - from its neighbors affection and friendliness. And here, on her bed, watching Angie unceremoniously thrust a couple of chocolates into her mouth, she reminds herself that this is not the way she should be feeling.

Angie reaches up with one hand to clean a smudge of chocolate from her lips, and Peggy unsuccessfully works to keep her gaze from being so directly focused, but those lips are just so pretty and she shouldn’t want to feel her own against them but she does. She can feel herself blushing, and for all the espionage training her performance skills don’t come close to those of an actress, let alone one as excellent as Angie, especially while they’re sitting side by side. She scoots forward to pour herself a glass of red, and drinks nearly half of it.

_How absurd, to have to calm one’s nerves when spending time with a dear friend._

“Kiss me,” Angie’s voice is soft, but demanding, and Peggy shoots her a look of shock, thoroughly sure she’s misheard.

“Kiss me as if it were the last time.”

She’d swear Angie were only quoting the film, but the girl’s hand meets her shoulder and Peggy’s heart is beating more intensely by the moment and there’s just something in the gently desperate way Angie’s looking over at her that makes her do it.

And when Angie’s arms curl around her shoulders and pull her tighter, Peggy can’t remember why she even hesitated.


End file.
